I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mounting pedestals for utilities, and more particularly, to a mounting pedestal for the compact and safe mounting of an electric meter, an electrical power box, a telephone junction box, a television jack, a water cyclometer and a gas meter, for conveniently furnishing such utilities to a mobile home.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, utilities such as electrical power, telephone service, cable television service, water and gas have been provided for mobile homes through separate lines and conduits leading from meters and junction boxes. The utility meters were often supported in the vicinity of the mobile home but placed at separate locations selected by each utility company. In mobile home parks, if there were no conveniently located tree or utility pole near the mobile home, each utility company often drove a post into the ground to support their particular meter or junction box for servicing one or more nearby mobile homes. Sometimes the meters or junction boxes for a large number of mobile homes were centrally located at a single spot. This resulted in a tangle of utility wires and pipes, which was both visually displeasing and inconvenient to connect and disconnect upon removal of the mobile home from its parking site. Particularly with respect to centrally located meters, there was delay in deactuating the utility supply in case of fire, due to the remoteness of the meters.
My earlier mounting pedestal for utilities, U.S. Pat. No. Re. 31,359 (Aug. 23, 1983), solved these and other problems relating to utility pedestals. However, my prior device did not address the problems of the expense of producing a unitary, grounded utility pedestal; or of the relatively short useful life of a metal pedestal, due to rusting and the like. Merely replacing the metal post with a nonconductive post, in combination with separate ground wire, is not a practical solution to the problem. Each utility company employs its own personnel to install its device, and it is unlikely that each installer will take the time to connect each device to a ground wire attached to the other devices. In some locales, such an act may even constitute an illegal interference with, or modification of, the supply of the other utility.